Opponents said the plan would be unworkably complicated, would pressure states without sales taxes to adopt them and would encourage companies to move overseas, where they said sales taxes could not be enforced.

"It tramples on states' rights," said Sen. Kelly Ayotte, R-N.H.

Online businesses with less than $1 million in annual sales would be exempted from having to collect the levies.

In states with sales taxes, online buyers are currently supposed to pay a tax on their purchases but the requirement is seldom enforced.

"Supporters also argue that not collecting the levies is a competitive disadvantage for retail stores, which must collect local sales taxes."

Most retail stores already don't have squat for a selection in them anyway.

Even at those local, retail stores, you almost have to go to their website, to find any choices!

Maybe that is due to how much it costs retailers (brick and mortar) to carry inventory?

Online-only retailers (especially those with agreements with major distributors) can typically have the distributor drop-ship to the customer - Tech Data, for example, will do so for most items at no additional cost - to either retailer or customer.

Retail of the brick-and-mortar sort is very much fickle, and prone to customer whim. (I've done retail - and what I just said is the GOOD part of it.)

Online commerce is booming because it's tax-avoidance for everyman - which is exactly why the counties and states that levy it are howling.

Oh get over it! If you haven't noticed, the country is broke. And why should online retailers have an unfair advantage over brick-and-mortar stores? At this point, it's stupid. If anything, a level playing field would be good for "American business".

Screw counties. first they over inflated property taxes then when the housing market crashed, those people leaving were lost revenue. Here's the thing. Why are municipalities hurting? poor financial planning. California is a prime example of tax and spend. they raise some crazy tax in hopes of generating revenue within the state, then forget to realize that people are leaving California in droves because it is too darn expensive to live there. Face it, they use some wild math thinking california has X million people and multiply that by the rate of tax multiplied by what they hope to be the number of sales they hope places like amazon will bring in. then they'll misuse THAT to pay for the inflated pensions that the state union employees want for their retirements. But it won't be enough... people are broke and have no jobs... no... ridiculous tax to feed the misguided spending of our politicians

online retailers have an unfair advantage over local shops, no tax, even though you are SUPOSE to pay the tax to your state (yes you still legally have to report an untaxed out of state purchase in state taxes)..

too many local stores shut down because they can't compete with no tax (not because it cost less, but too many people having a psychological impact that "oh im not paying that here ill buy there then")... heck states are losing that money too, hence why a lot of them are going broke, people paying less and less into sales tax

online retailers have an unfair advantage over local shops, no tax, even though you are SUPOSE to pay the tax to your state (yes you still legally have to report an untaxed out of state purchase in state taxes)..

too many local stores shut down because they can't compete with no tax (not because it cost less, but too many people having a psychological impact that "oh im not paying that here ill buy there then")... heck states are losing that money too, hence why a lot of them are going broke, people paying less and less into sales tax

it isn't an unfair advantage it is just smart business. why isn't it? because these businesses should be ashamed of good business decisions for their business? Sounds alot like a certain president who says that businesses are mean ol' nasty codgers and they didn't build that.

truth is, why is this a problem that we must now tax online retail? the answer is, there was NEVER a problem and never was a tax nor was the issue ever brought up that memory serves from day 1 of the internet.. well maybe one time but it was quickly squashed. Point being; politicians and municipalities have mismanaged their funds for so long and are so greedy to fill the sucking void of poor stewardship that they are NOW wanting to kill even more businesses because they are complete ****heads. ok.. went back to reread the OP and the senate primarily Democrats with some GOP sponsors are pushing for this to "give local businesses a fighting chance." I call BS! The federal government has shackled businesses for so long about with business killing or anti business regulations that cost businesses too much to operate that, the big boys have the ability to leave the country and reap profits. Hell, Obama sent jeep to China after the election(remember that in the debate with Romney?)

it isn't an unfair advantage it is just smart business. why isn't it? because these businesses should be ashamed of good business decisions for their business? Sounds alot like a certain president who says that businesses are mean ol' nasty codgers and they didn't build that.

truth is, why is this a problem that we must now tax online retail? the answer is, there was NEVER a problem and never was a tax nor was the issue ever brought up that memory serves from day 1 of the internet.. well maybe one time but it was quickly squashed. Point being; politicians and municipalities have mismanaged their funds for so long and are so greedy to fill the sucking void of poor stewardship that they are NOW wanting to kill even more businesses because they are complete ****heads. ok.. went back to reread the OP and the senate primarily Democrats with some GOP sponsors are pushing for this to "give local businesses a fighting chance." I call BS! The federal government has shackled businesses for so long about with business killing or anti business regulations that cost businesses too much to operate that, the big boys have the ability to leave the country and reap profits. Hell, Obama sent jeep to China after the election(remember that in the debate with Romney?)

aside from the lies we were told that it wasn't going to happen???? huh??? Jeep/Chrysler, which is part of Daimler chrysler, can now make fat profits on cheap China labor.

can anyone refute this? no- thank you be sure to tip your waiteresshttp://youtu.be/4j8m8L8B7pM referring to the be sure to tip your waitress

no, there was always a problem, and there has been issues with this since online commerce started.... states constantly brought it up and they they always came back with "well you still have to pay a tax anyways when it enters the state".... that's been in existence forever! if I was to go to a state that has no sales tax, buy a car, bring it back to Pennsylvania, I have to legally pay Pennsylvania sales tax on it because it was an out of state purchase "use taxes" have been around forever.... somehow everyone thinks we don't need to pay tax on the internet, when really everyone is breaking tax law by not paying it and not reporting it on state taxes..... states are finally starting to realize this is a problem and that people won't tell the truth and report out of state purchases in the use tax section of state taxes...

This is simply a "redistribution of wealth is all." Take from online business and give it to smaller less fortunate business? in my school research, redistribution of wealth is a facet or item of the communist manifesto by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels. written in the 1800's. Karl marx hated with impunity, the free market(because he was a lazy ****head and wouldn't even try to get a job) Marx was Indolent. But he proposed redistributing wealth to supposedly to help poor people. Karl actually lived off of Friedrich Engels dads money that he would give to Engels. Not oncedid Marx have a single job in his life even when he married the German Aristocrats daughter, she lived with him in squallier. anyway... (Friedrich Engels dad was a manufacturing Magnate in Germany) but that didn't bother Marx did it?

the bank bailouts were NO different. take the wealth from the people since it was the peoples money(they will have to repay it in their taxes) but the wealth went to these supposed "too BIG to fail!" banks.

the government figured out a way to kill businesses with a new tax(hey, it will come out of the money brought in), and go to REALLY either the federal government or states. but it will NOT ...EVER... make it to the small business the bill supposedly says it will help.

somehow everyone thinks we don't need to pay tax on the internet, when really everyone is breaking tax law by not paying it and not reporting it on state taxes..... states are finally starting to realize this is a problem and that people won't tell the truth and report out of state purchases in the use tax section of state taxes...

Mostly because it's practically impossible to figure out how much "use tax" you're supposed to pay at the end of the year anyway. First of all, who keeps track of every purchase they make? Of those who do keep track, do you keep track of what each ITEM is? The sales tax laws are all over the board. In Minnesota, for example, there's no sales tax on clothing. No sales tax on food. But prepared food is taxed, as are some things that are food but not classified as food by the state. In addition, taxes vary based on location. If there were only 50 sales tax laws, great, but there's not. How are you supposed to figure out what you really owe? It's ridiculous.

Regardless, the Supreme Court of the United States has ruled that it's illegal for a state to require a company to collect sales tax unless they have a physical presence. It'll be interesting to see how this plays out.

People aren't paying the tax they're legally obligated to, which is wrong. It's also unfair to bricks and mortar retailers (which have to pay tax) and states (which are struggling to provides essential services). It's amazing that the current situation has been allowed to carry on as long as it has but it highlights the complexities and contradictions involved in the relationship between states and the federal government.

Nobody wants to pay more tax than they have to but right now the financial situation in a lot of states is dire and that's in part due to businesses and individuals exploiting current tax law.